Currently, in the processes of manufacturing devices such as liquid crystal displays (LCDs), electroluminescence devices (ELDs), touch screen modules and solar batteries, patterns of corresponding components can be formed by means of films. For instance, in the processes of manufacturing components in an LCD such as a gate electrode, a source electrode, a drain electrode and a pixel electrode and a touch electrode of a capacitive touch module, patterns of the components can be prepared with corresponding films.
The traditional methods for preparing film patterns generally include a masking process. For instance, in the process of manufacturing a touch electrode of a capacitive touch module, generally, firstly, an indium tin oxide (ITO) film is formed on a base substrate by magnetron sputtering; secondly, a photoresist film is coated on the ITO film; thirdly, the photoresist film is exposed via a mask pattern and developed to obtain a photoresist pattern; fourthly, the ITO film is wet-etched with the photoresist pattern; and fifthly, the remaining photoresist is stripped to obtained a required pattern of the touch electrode.
As can be seen, the traditional method for preparing the film patterns is complex. Moreover, as the cost of a mask used in the preparation process is high, the cost of preparing the film patterns is also high. Therefore, how to simplify the preparation steps of the film patterns and reduce the production cost of the film patterns is a technical problem to be solved by those skilled in the art.